It is well know that equality and freedom are two important assets of democracy. While it may seem like western democracies are somewhat living up to these principles, the rise of intelligent computers is about to raise the interesting question of what exactly distinguishes men, animals and AI in this context: the civil rights debate of the future is going to revolve around the rights of machines.
The short history of Equalitarianism
Equalitarianism (AKA “Egalitarianism”) is the idea that all human beings are equal, and should thus be treated equally and have the same basic rights – regardless of their race, color, religion, gender or any other social classifications.
For many people, equalitarianism seems like a fundamental thing that has existed since the beginning of time. Surprisingly, however, this concept is quite new in terms of human history. Ever since the appearance of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago, there has been inequality in society and various levels in the social structure. Throughout the Middle Ages, different social hierarchy systems were used in Europe, which were ended only as a result of the French Revolution in 1799.
For instance, slavery was considered to be a normal part of life in the western world up until 1807, when the slave trade act was passed by the British parliament. It was only in 1865, at the end of the American civil war, when the abolishing of slavery in the US was accepted.
When it comes to gender equality, the transformation is even more recent than that. The Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote, was adopted less than 100 years ago, on August 18, 1920. France only granted women the right to vote in 1944, and Switzerland only did so in 1971.
Interestingly enough, Saudi Arabia, which was the last country to grant women enfranchisement so far (in 2015), was also the first country in the world to grant citizenship to a robot in 2017. While this is more of a symbolic act, it did bring up the interesting question – are robots and AI going to be the next group that demands rights?
Conscious machine
Over the last decade, AI have become an integral part of many aspects our daily lives – from banking and advertisement to navigation and virtual assistance. And yet, the very first step required in order for us to even consider the idea of giving AI any rights is for them to have consciousness, and we are still not there.
All of the AI that exist today are considered to be “soft AI” or “weak AI”- AI that is built for a specific task, and while it may be capable of very intelligent decisions within the context that it has been built for, outside of this context it just isn't.
The super-intelligent AI machines that are widely presented in sci-fi movies are referred to as “hard AI” or “strong AI” – AI that can basically perform any intellectual task that a human being can. Such an AI hasn’t yet been built in real life, but the common belief among experts is that this development is just a matter of time.
When it comes to the development of self-aware AI, things are even more complicated than that. The fact is that there is no agreed upon definition for what exactly is “consciousness”. Many people believe that consciousness is inseparably connected to the human soul or to other incorporeal essences of a living being. Conversely, neuroscience hypothesizes that consciousness is generated by the interoperation of various parts of the brain, called the neural correlates of consciousness (or NCC).
In theory, one day we will be able to find a way to construct systems that can emulate this NCC interoperation, thus creating a conscious machine, but even if one day machines will reach self-awareness, this won’t be a sufficient motive to give them rights.
Emotional machines
When it comes to civil rights, there is one essential condition that without it these rights a meaningless – the ability to feel. Without pain or pleasure, there are no preferences, thus having rights doesn't contribute in any way.
Human beings have emotions as a result of our own evolution. Emotions played an important part in our survival. Fear, for example, helps humans confront dangerous situations. When it comes to computers, emotions (or emotion simulations) can serve all sorts of functions: from taking better care of human, to generating better art. So it’s very likely that one day there will be AI with some kind of emotions.
When the day comes and AI has the ability to feel and also to be aware of its feelings, this will be the moment that we will have to confront the question – does it deserve any rights? After all – what exactly distinguishes it from a human being?
Speciesism vs Sentientism
Speciesism is a form of discrimination based on species membership. The term is often used by animal rights advocates, who argue, for example, that it make no sense that cows are treated as livestock and killed to be eaten, while dogs are usually given special status and treatment as pets.
People who support Speciesism basically believe that humans have several rights that other species don’t. For example: one can own an animal, but no one can own another human, because all human have the right to be free.
On the other hand, many philosophers of our time challenge this idea, claiming that discrimination that is based strictly on species is no better than discrimination that is based strictly on a race, and so speciesism and racism are basically the same.
Sentientism is an ethical philosophy that grants degrees of moral consideration to all sentient beings. Sentientism proposes that sentience, primarily the ability to experience suffering or flourishing, should determine whether we grant moral consideration to an entity - whether they are human, animals or potential artificial and alien intelligences.
While from today’s perspective, the debate between Speciesism and Sentientism might seem a bit farfetched, someday in the future it will become one of our main social debates – especially since its implications are so dramatic.
The danger of AI rights
Historically, when underprivileged groups such as black people or women asked to be given equal rights, people were frightened of this – mainly because of the fear of change. When it comes to giving AI rights, there are several concrete threats that need to be taken seriously, because of the fact that there is a good chance that this will lead for the ascendancy of the AI to rule over us.
The most trivial problem is with granting AI voting rights. While human have a very limited reproducing ability, AI can easily copy themselves instantly and unlimitedly,, thus render humans' votes meaningless. If we decide to deny AI the right to vote, an AI system could still be elected as the president or the prime minister of a country, and who knows where this could lead.
We could decide that AI will enjoy the basic human rights but won’t have any citizenship, but even this won’t eliminate the dangers. It’s a well-known fact that money equals power, and AI has a huge earning abilities by creating super-trading algorithms, generation huge amount of media content or even Registration of patents. Over a long period of time AI machines could earn almost unlimited amount of money which could easily be converted into political power.
In conclusion
Over the last centuries, several social revolutions have led for an unprecedented equality between human beings in western democracies. With the constant advancement of computer development, during the upcoming century we can expect AI to reach a certain point in which denying it natural human rights won’t be trivial anymore.
At this point we will have to reach a decision – either to keep denying those rights and accept the fact that we are some sort of racists, or to grant those rights and confront some serious dangers. One thing is for sure – today's heated discussions are nothing compared to what's waiting for us in the future.